Queen’s Employees Meet to Discuss New HR Admin System

Published on: 2010/07/22 - in Releases

Over 100 Queen’s employees eager to learn about the Human Resources (HR) transition from a main frame to a web-based administration system this coming December recently attended a first town hall meeting on the change.

A collaborative presentation from Human Resources and the project team outlined the major differences for system users and what they should expect over the next several months as the team prepares to launch the new PeopleSoft system.

“There are many benefits,” says Vice-Principal (Human Resources) Rod Morrison. “PeopleSoft goes far beyond the technical. The technology enables, but people are the core of the project. The new system is not a policy change; it is a different way of doing some of our practices.”

Under the new system, which is part of the three-year Queen’s Administrative System Replacement (QUASR), new employees and students will have one identification number that won’t change. Current identifications for people already at the university will remain the same.

The new system will be more efficient and improve risk management as the university tracks data like hours worked, vacation and sick time that is currently required but not possible to collect in the legacy system. PeopleSoft also bridges the centralized role of human resources and the decentralized nature of the university for more effective information processing.

Some core aspects of HR PeopleSoft include:

• Human resources: Decentralized hiring with the potential for data entry at the source by departments and units to reduce the processing time that’s required.

• Payroll: New pay stubs will provide employees with more details about wages, benefits and deductions.

• Benefits: New employees will receive a summary report of the benefits they requested to streamline enrolments.

• Time worked: Users will be better equipped to track time to help the university more effectively honour its commitments to collect that information.

QUASR HR project manager Debbie Radley says timing of data entry is critical. Transaction dates will drive deadlines instead of payroll cutoff dates. Virtually all of PeopleSoft is based on effective dating.

“If users start thinking this way now, it will make the transition easier,” she adds.

A walkthrough of the PeopleSoft interface showed participants how easy it will be for ‘timekeepers’ to enter information and changes.

There will be no change to pay frequency under the new system; employees will continue to be paid monthly. Even though tracking is in hours, salaried employees’ monthly pay will not fluctuate.

During the question and answer period participants expressed interest in how the system impacts their work.

“There is no one solution that fits every user group,” said Julie Mekarski, the HR director of organization development and learning. “The needs and concerns will differ depending on the user of the system. HR is working with faculty staffing officers on the academic side and key business contacts on the non-academic side over the next several months to address specific issues.”

HR is also working closely with representatives from the Office of V-P (Research), faculties and other key stakeholders to review system impacts on the research community.

Another town hall meeting with the same information as the July 15 session will be held July 28 at 1:30 pm.
New information will then be presented at a third town hall on August 18 at 10 am that will be repeated on August 25 at 1:30 pm. All of the sessions are in the new Kinesiology and Health Studies Building, room 100.

The team is also asking town hall participants to complete a feedback survey. Questions and comments can also be emailed to the team, and more information can be found on the website.